If you are just starting to research homeschooling, then I have no doubt that you've come across the concept of "morning time". We actually call this our symposium and it includes our daily bible reading, fiction book, day's agenda, and anything else I'd like us to hit on each day. It doesn't last long, because later in the day we practice what we call "group time".
In group time, my primary grade students gather around the table and we cover the day's subject together. Group time is when we do history, science, grammar, latin, writing, and math. That's right, we do the same program for all of these subjects with a slight variation for each student. My homeschool is a lot like a one-room schoolhouse. I love one room schoolhouses!
It's fairly easy to see how to read history and elementary science together, but you may be wondering how we do group math?
Well, it's actually easier than it sounds. First, until about 3rd grade my children don't study a formal math text. Instead, they do weekly group math, associated assignments, and then practice mastering math facts. This practice has helped my kids avoid anxiety about math and has even shown them that math can be fun. You can imagine how important that is to me as a math teacher. We do a lot of riddles, problem solving, math history stories, games, and activities. While doing these, we focus on discovering concepts and learning the vocabulary. My youngest students know words like commutative, factor, and reciprocal.
I Don't Know How to Teach Group Math!
I understand that not everyone is prepared to run a weekly math group time, which is why last spring we spent 15 weeks doing one with you. Each week we looked at a lesson from Ray's Arithmetic and then met to complete an activity. Those lessons are currently available to you free, so make sure you check those out. Especially if you want to start doing group math in your home. This course had students from 2nd to 7th grade. Generally the material would have been a little hard to complete with a kindergartener, but you'd be surprised at how much those littles retain from sitting through a math activity that's "over their heads".
While it's certainly more difficult to do math as a group in the older grades, for grades k-5, it's not only doable, but quite fun. Learning about the study of mathematics together as a family is the single best math decision I think I've made.
Go check out our free Ray's Arithmetic course and see how cool math can be for your entire family!